EMECO

New Western Shelf Observatory Launched

A new Western Shelf Observatory (WSO) has been launched as part of the European Marine Ecosystem Observatory (EMECO). Its purpose is to integrate programmes of sustained marine observing systems to improve knowledge and understanding of marine ecosystems and the connectivity between our shelf seas and the Atlantic Ocean. It will strengthen the evidence base for environmental assessments, underpin future research, increase uptake of marine data and information and address gaps in current marine monitoring, modelling and research.

The Western Shelf domain encompasses the Western UK and Irish shelf and its adjacent sea areas and catchments. The WSO is a bottom-up initiative currently comprised of 11 UK and Irish marine institutes and organisations that carry out a range of activities including making sustained marine observations and monitoring as well as modelling and research. A number of the institutes have management responsibilities and advise the UK and Irish Governments and the EU on matters related to the environmental status of marine systems ranging from fisheries, pollution and climate change.

The partners operate a wide range of traditional and novel observation platforms including research vessels, buoys and fixed moorings, Ferryboxes, the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR), tide gauges, gliders, satellite remote sensing, seabed landers and volunteer networks for coastal observation. These platforms are used to collect data and information representing the marine ecosystem from the physics to the fish. Many of these observation programmes contribute towards regional scale observatories e.g. the Western Channel Observatory (WCO) operated by Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) and the Irish Sea Observatory operated by the National Oceanographic Centre (NOC). 

The WSO provides a framework for bringing these observations together, thereby increasing interoperability between the marine monitoring programs and strengthening the evidence base for environmental assessments.

This framework also promotes interoperability between the Western Shelf Observatory and other UK and European observatories. This interoperability at larger, transnational scales is important for meeting current and future UK, Irish and European marine policy requirements.

The observatory embraces the open ocean boundaries to our shelf seas and so has the potential to provide new knowledge about the role of oceanic forcing in driving environmental change in the interior of our shelf-seas.

Find out more about the Western Shelf Observatory network of marine monitoring on the new Western Shelf Observatory website.